The Lost City of Z

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⭐ 6.0/10

(Originally written by Joseph)

This is the movie adaptation of the book I'm currently reading, which is the true story about Percival Fawcett and his insane drive to try and find a mythical city in the Amazon Rainforest. The book is really great, and in my opinion really lends itself to a terrific movie, which is why I'm pretty disappointed that this movie didn't do much for me.

I had a lot of issues with the movie, but one of the biggest ones was the filmmaker's insistence on changing character motivations. They tried to make Fawcett seem modern and altruistic, basically saying that he wanted to find Z to prove that the Amazonian indigenous people were just as capable of creating cities as Europeans. I think this kinda defeats the purpose of the true story, which is that he was sorta mad and maniacal, and also misrepresents who he was and his attitudes towards indigenous tribes (while I think he was certainly progressive for his time, he wasn't radical). I also think a lot of the social justice themes were pretty clumsy in this movie, and felt a little forced.

I don't mind changes from books to movies, but I care a little more if they are true stories, and even more when the true story could've easily been better. I don't think this movie necessarily had to be Apocalypse Now... but it sure could have been! Instead of an interesting look at obsession and madness, following a guy who lost everything just to explore the most dangerous part of the planet, we kinda got this weird action hero who we're supposed to cheer for despite confusing motivations.

I feel like I could go on for a while, but maybe I'll get to those in the book review. But I don't think Charlie Hunnam was the correct choice as Fawcett, and I really wish this would've been another Grann-to-Scorsese alley-oop instead like Flower Moon and Wager. I think this movie would fit Scorsese even better than Wager. It makes me sad we'll never get it. Instead we got James Gray who I praised this year for Ad Astra... but who I didn't love here.

All that said, I think this movie has elements to redeem it some. It looks beautiful, and spends tons of time in the Amazon. It's nicely immersive, and is a pretty passable adventure movie. Without reading the book first, I'm sure I would have given it a higher score.

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